1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a new N-acetyl-(R)-β-amino acid acylase, a new N-acetyl-(S)-β-amino acid acylase, genes encoding them, and methods for their use.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Enzymes having acylase activity on N-acetyl-β-amino acids have not been previously reported. The present inventors were the first to discover the bacterial strains of Variovorax sp. AJ110348 (FERM BP-10367) and Burkholderia sp. AJ110349 (FERM BP-10366), which are able to optically selectively deacetylate.
N-acetyl-β-amino acids such as N-acetyl-β-phenylalanine are produced by using bacterial cells of the above bacterial strains. A method for optically selectively deacetylating such bacterial cells or the supernatant of ruptured bacterial cells are described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-42722. These bacterial strains were deposited in an international depository on Jul. 4, 2005, under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure. These strains were derived from FERM P-20129 and FERM P-20128, which were deposited with the International Patent Organism Depositary (an independent administrative institution) of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology on Jul. 22, 2004.